I am a former teacher/librarian at KCI and I will post items that deal with educational apps or items that teachers or students might use in the classroom. This blog may contain affiliate links that earn me a commission at no extra cost to you. If you would like to follow me click on the blue button below please.
Previously when I was looking at collages of pictures, I mentioned that some of that material could be used in a Glog and then turned in digitally to the teacher. Here is a way that teachers can keep track of material being submitted digitally. It is called Edmodo. It can do more than just collect digital assignments but boy that would cut down on the consumption of paper being printed. It is a way to let your students receive their assignments digitally. If a student is away, he or she will always have their homework posted. You can post your notes and grades from markbook (use the html output option). Parents can monitor their son or daughters progress. Imagine on parent teacher interview that you have a portfolio of work available to show them. Take a chance and see what you can do with this. I see some great benefits from using this.
Currently Mr. Davis is using Edmodo with great success in some classes and less in others. You may want to pick his brain.
Here is a short video produced by Edmodo.
Here is a video which shows some ideas of how to use Edmodo. Some might be applicable to you and some might not, but this may springboard you into new ideas.
Mr. Eastman introduced me to TED TALKS and there are some great ones out there. I will try and point out some great ones later but I decided to point out a few shorter ones on TED ED.
Health - What is the single best thing you can do for your health?
Sustainable Energy - A look at sustainable energy and what we use our energy for
Science - Electrostatics - Spinning Match Sticks - This one was not actually from TED ED but I found it from another link from there.
After watching this, why does there need to be a cup there? I know, do you?
Math - Exponential Growth and Folding Paper. You could use this for exponent laws or for introduction
to the exponential Growth and Decay.
Have your students fold an 8 x 11 sheet of paper to see how many times they can do it.
Not a TED ED video but fits with the above video, Myth Busters showing this idea.
Science - Average Speed and football 40 yard dash
Some questions from the TED - ED site under DIG DEEPER.
1) What is the average speed of Rich Eisen running the 40 yard dash, in meters per second?
2) What is the average speed of Terrence "Mount" Cody (the big guy in green), in meters per second?
3) If Rich and Cody ran a 100 - meter race, who would win and by how much of a distance? You may assume that they run the 100 - meter race with the same average speed that they ran the 40 yard dash. (Bad assumption).
Music as a language
English - The art of the metaphors
From the TED - ED site under DIG DEEPER.
To explore metaphors more fully on your own, there are three directions you can go.
The first is simply to start noticing whenever you meet one. Jane Hirshfield slipped metaphors into many of the things she said in this lesson. You might listen to it again and make a list of some of the metaphors she used along the way, without pointing out that they were metaphors. Then go to any random web blog or newspaper or magazine article and just start reading until you’ve found a half dozen metaphors. Sometimes there will be many right away, other times there could be none at all. A factual, brief newspaper article, for example, is less likely to use metaphors or similes; but an article in which the writer is describing some event or issue that he or she wants you to experience for yourself will probably have some. Also, many ordinary expressions and sayings are metaphors and similes: “She was feeling blue.” “I was nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of fans.” “The news hit him like a ton of bricks.” Try making a list of some colorful or memorable expressions, and then look to see how many have metaphors in them. And pick up a few books of poems and find the metaphors in them. (Or look at poems online, on any of the websites listed below.) Not every poet uses metaphor, and not every poem, but many do. Hunting for them is one way you can tune your ear and mind to hear them.
A second direction to explore metaphors further is to practice inventing metaphors yourself. There are many ways to train yourself to think of metaphors. Here’s one: At any moment—you could set a cell phone alarm to go off three times a day to surprise yourself with the request—you can stop, look around, pick something completely arbitrary, then ask yourself to find a metaphor to describe it: “The big truck was weaving down the crowded avenue, a confident, nimble elephant in a hurry, seeming sure that the other animals would get out of its way.” “The half-dead flowers in the vase look like a cluster of disappointed kids, the ones who haven’t been picked for a team, standing there with their shoulders slumped, their faces closing up against showing what they feel.” “The refrigerator’s motor made a sound somewhere between a contented cat and an angry one.” Try many different kinds of metaphors to stretch your imagination. Notice when they just seem like playing around, and when you hit something that seems more interesting, more right, richer in feeling and information.
A third way to learn more about metaphor is to read about it directly. Many books discuss the special ways of using language that come under the larger headings of “figurative language” or “rhetoric.” This includes metaphor. One of the earliest such books is the Greek philosopher Aristotle’s Poetics. Much of what Aristotle describes there is as relevant today as it was in ancient Greece—languages change constantly, but the way the mind uses language was as fully formed in 600 B.C.E. as it is now.
A few specific resources:
Almost every modern textbook or handbook about poetry has a chapter on metaphor. The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics is one good resource for an academic-level overview.
BBC Radio ran a terrific 45 minute program on metaphor (with a good “recommended books” list on the program’s web page). You can listen to the program in their online archive here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00w227c
A revelatory and now classic book about metaphor, exploring how language uses metaphor in subtle ways that don’t always seem apparent, is Metaphors We Live By, by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson. For instance, when we say something as simple as “That’s a big idea!” the word “big” is a metaphor: ideas don’t come in physical sizes. There are hidden metaphors like that in almost everything we say. When we say, “I see!” to mean “I understand,” we aren’t actually seeing with our eyes. When we say, “I understand,” we aren’t actually standing under the thing we’re thinking about.
Metaphors We Live By, by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson (IL: University of Chicago Press, 1980)
A more recently published book about metaphor and its function covers much the same ground, showing how metaphor affects us in every realm of speech and thought:
I Is Another: The Secret Life of Metaphor and How It Shapes The Way We See the World, by James Cleary (NY: HarperCollins, 2011)
To explore further how poems work in general, including many examples of how to unfold the metaphors in poetry without treating them like crossword puzzles to be correctly solved:
How To Read a Poem, by Burton Raffel (NY: Plume/Meridian, 1984)
Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry, by Jane Hirshfield (NY: HarperCollins, 1997)
Many poetry organizations and journals are online. One richly useful resource website: www.poetryfoundation.org
A search for the word “metaphor” within that site turns up an array of materials and discussions: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/search/?q=metaphor
A continually expanding selection of contemporary poems by poets worldwide, translated into English from many languages: http://www.poetryinternationalweb.net/pi/site/collection/index/en
For a similar resource collecting primarily US poets: http://www.poets.org
From Crash Course. These videos could be used as a preview or review of WWI or WWII.
John Green teaches you about the war that was supposed to end all wars.Instead, it solved nothing and set the stage for the world to be at war just a couple of decades later. As an added bonus, World War I changed the way people look at the world, and normalized cynicism and irony. John will teach you how the assassination of an Austrian Archduke kicked off a new kind of war that involved more nations and more people than any war that came before. New technology like machine guns, airplanes, tanks and poison gas made the killing more efficient than ever. Trench warfare and modern weapons led to battles in which tens of thousands of soldiers were killed in a day, with no ground gained for either side. World War I washed away the last vestiges of 19th century Romanticism and paved the way for the 20th century modernism that we all know and find to be cold and off-putting. While there may not be much upside to WWI, at least it inspired George M. Cohan to write the awesome song, "Over There."
John Green teaches you about World War II, aka The Great Patriotic War, aka The Big One. So how did this war happen? And what does it mean? We've all learned the facts about World War II many times over, thanks to repeated classroom coverage, the History channel, and your grandfather (or maybe great-grandfather) showing you that Nazi bayonet he used to keep in his sock drawer and telling you a bunch of age-inappropriate stories about his harrowing war experiences. So, why did the Axis powers think forceful expansion was a good idea? (they were hungry). So why did this thing shake out in favor of the Allies? Hint: it has to do with the fact that it was a world war. Germany and Japan made some pretty serious strategic errors, such as invading Russia and attacking the United States, and those errors meant that pretty much the whole world was against them. So, fins out how this worldwide alliance came together to stop the Axis expansion. All this, plus Canada finally gets the respectful treatment it deserves. Oh, and a warning: there are a few graphic images in this episode. Sensitive viewers may want to use caution, especially around the 9:15 mark.
Three new books in the house. These three were on back order from our order of the top nominees for the White Pines Award. This is an award for the top young adult fiction in Canada. All the new arrivals are shelved on the librarians desk.
Living with hope is like rubbing up against a cheese grater. It keeps taking slices off you until there's so little left you just crumble. Deeply scary and funny at the same time. For a title peek click here.
After tremendous earthquakes destroy the Earth's major cities, an ancient evil emerges, turning ordinary people into hunters, killers, and insane monsters but a small group of teens comes together in a fight for survival and safety. For a title peek clickhere.
After the prediction of Ryder's mother, once a great prophet and powerful witch, comes true and their village is destroyed by a deadly assassin, Ryder embarks on a quest that takes him into the mountains in search of the destroyer. For a title peek clickhere.
We all would like our students to be able to summarize what they have read and to be able to be very
succinct in doing so. In doing this assignment, the students are asked to tear apart a story into 4 basic themes, ideas or concepts and then further summarize those ideas into 4 icons (simple pictures). For example, for Harry Potter one could use the following.
The above was from Ben Rimes. He suggests the following:
Students should choose a well known story (movie, book, fable, etc.) so no one is at a disadvantage for figuring out the summaries.
Have the students focus on just one or two elements of the story (settings, characters, plot devices, events, moods, etc.)
Don’t let students use the actual images to describe something. For example, when he created hisHarry Potter 4 icon challenge, he found an image of a wizard’s hat, NOT Harry Potter himself
Don’t worry about using technology! You can do this with pencil and paper. Once the students have it mastered, then move online so it’s easier for students to share their creations on a class website, or our schools Portal page when it goes live.
You’ll find that the students will quickly outgrow these guidelines, and the sky really is the limit where you take this visual summarizing strategy, as long as you focus on stories that have clear beginnings, middle, and ends
Here are a few others by Kyle Tezak
Now the last thing you should do is teach your students where to find images that are not copyright protected. I know most students just use Google Images and copy and paste but if you pick Google Advanced Images, and go to the bottom left and select USAGE RIGHTS and pick FREE TO USE OR SHARE then your images will be copyright free and then you can right click and save. If you have any question please come and ask me in the Learning Commons.
With a blog on words yesterday it is time for a picture today. I looked at three FREE photo editing websites that you or your students might wish to use. The first one I looked at was from Photovisi
Just hit the CREATE button to start. Select your TEMPLATE on the left hand side, then add your photos and then click on the FINISH and then save it. That simple. Here is one that I did rather easily.
Since I picked a cartoonish type collage above, I thought I would show you a second website that you could do some cartooning, amoungst other effects.
This site is a FREE site also. Just click on the START HAVING FUN button. You can then upload your pictures from your computer by selecting MY COMPUTER. Then have fun.
I selected ARTSY from the left hand side and CARTOONIZER for the following pictures. I also selected FRAMES on the left hand side to put a frame around the pictures. Play around.
Finally with a holiday picture of Nurse, I thought I would show you a third site that I made up a little holiday pic of my kids (and another big kid) but you could do plenty of other things on this FREE site.
Just pick your background on the right hand side. Click on the ADD PHOTO on the top left left of your template. You can select more then one photo. You can move the photo around and rotate it etc. You can then select icons, which are just little pictures on the right hand side. Finally you can add some TEXT. When you are done you can select SAVE TO DISK which is just below the template.
Now if you don't like the created by collagemix.com in the bottom right hand corner then you can import the picture into befunky.com and pick a frame that covers this up. For example
The motivation for this blog came from those blue federation shirts we have been wearing.
I wondered where the design came from. Now I know. (It's funny I showed my daughter this post and she said she knew about Wordle already and she is in grade 4).
I thought this might be something the students can use as an image for a Glog or as a teacher it can be used to preview or review a unit. I thought of using the success criteria or learning goals for a course in a Wordle. I decided on Food and Nutrition HFA4M and the unit on Diversity, Interdependence and Global Connections. This was page 64 of the Ministry of Ontario's curriculum document for Social Sciences for grade 11 and 12. Using a few key words this is what I obtained after typing them into the text box after hitting create.
Now to demonstrate a point, I copied and pasted the whole page from the Ministry document into Wordle and this is what I obtained.
Notice what words stick out. The more times a word shows up in your list, the larger it is in the Wordle. You can read the FAQ to explain sizing etc. Also note Wordle has given you free rights to use your Wordle for whatever you would like to use it for. You can even make money off of them as designs for shirts. The downside of Wordle is that if you want a digital copy of your Wordle you must take a screen shot of it (hit Ctrl and Print Screen simultaneously) and then paste it into, say, Paint and then save it.
You can also go to the top banner and pick Gallery to see other peoples Wordles. Here are a couple I thought were good for educators. The first was titled Healthy Eating.
This one was called Ecosystems.
The last one was called Rock Cycle.
The problem with the gallery is that you can't search it digitally. You must just keep hitting the "Older>>" button. Oh well at least it is free.
This app will help science students with their science specific vocabulary. It is a free app for the Iphone. I am not sure about other phones, as I have an Iphone. The terminology for this app is selected from the grade 9 through 12 Ontario Science Curriculum. Yes, I said ONTARIO. The following is from Brendan Polley,
"Students often find themselves overwhelmed with the amount of new words they have to learn when studying science. Why cant' we learn about dinosaurs and robots without having to memorize a bunch of definitions? Whatchamacology turns studying scientific terms into a fun, interactive game.
If you enjoy games like Password, Taboo or Catch Phrase, you'll love Whatchamacology. Get your team to guess scientific terms without using words from their typical definitions. Act out a scene; draw pictures; tell stories; use analogies. Earn points for each correct guess. The team with the most points before the timer runs out wins! You'll find that when you start thinking creatively about scientific terms, they become much easier to remember. Great for study groups or classroom review sessions.
Hundreds of clues related to:
-Biology
-Chemistry
-Physics
-Earth and Space Science
-Environmental Science
Whatchamacology includes relevant terminology from the 9-12 Ontario Science Curriculum. Play a game of random terms or select a set of clues based on subject, grade, and pathway. You can even submit your own terms and clues to share with your classes and the Whatchamacology community."
Here are some screen shots from my phone ( I just learned how to do that )
We all know that the host of Jeopardy is Alex Trebek, who was born in Sudbury Ontario.
Do you know what Jeopardy means?
1. Danger of loss, harm or failure.
2. Danger arising from being on trial for a criminal offence.
Synonyms: peril, hazard, danger, risk, menace or threat
Would you like to use Jeopardy in the classroom. It is a great way to review a unit prior to an assessment. There are many online Jeopardy sites. Many involve PowerPoint templates. Here is a site that doesn't. Click on the link below.
Here is a template that was already made on cell division.
Also you can try a new question every weekday as a bell ringer or just for yourself. The New York Times in conjunction with Jeopardy has their "Clue of the Day". Today's clue would not be a good question for us Canadians ( well at least me ), but this was the question today. Click on the link below.
Ten Marks is an online mathematics tutoring service. It offers a free program for teachers. Ten Marks for is designed to be a supplement to classroom instruction, not a replacement for it. Ten Marks provides educators with an online forum in which they can assign mathematics practice problems to students and track their students' progress. If a student gets stuck on a problem he or she can open a tutorial to help him or her through the problem. Check out the two videos below. You can check out Ten Marks by clicking here.
Scholastic order forms can be found by clicking below. Maybe you might want to buy a holiday present from the below items. Make orders through Mr. H. in the Learning Commons ( The Library ). Make sure to click on the link below each picture to get the actual pdf order form.
